Yes, I will contact him. I did not want to name names and sound accusatory, wish I had not mentioned him by name, I adore his Columbian Rocks and was just sick to have this happen. I, too, would want to know if they were mine. He's a great guy, and a respected breeder. I suppose it could have been from faulty incubation but I don't think so, Ive hatched 100s of chicks without incident. I have 6 Brinsea's that are spot on. Do you think it could have been humidity, temps were 99.5 for the entire hatch (except for the hourly daily cooldown)? You know, I think diagnosing what went wrong is usually a futile exercise. The hair on the dead ones though really bug me, I've never seen anything like it before. They were like straight, longish terrier dog type fuzz.
Lacy, thanks so very much.
I don't think Scott will think you're accusing him... especially if you ask him to help you try and figure out what happened.
Did you let them cool for an hour every day? I think for a cool down you only need to do it for like 10 minutes or so.
You mentioned the chicks had hair-like down... take a look at this. This is normal for my birds. They look hairy to me too.
When they dry though, they're fluffy.
Did these chicks hatch when they were due? Did only these two of that set of eggs make it to hatching? Did others hatch?
This book says that if the chicks are sticky and smeared with yolk that the hatching temperature could be too low.
If you had it set at 99.5 and you cooled it for an hour every day, that could do it.
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